Often with Asus, nothing is simple in terms of nomenclature and the ZenPad 3S 10 tablet is no exception to the rule. It carries the reference Z500KL which is followed by a series of numbers and letters giving information on the color (silver or titanium gray) and especially on the internal memory 64 GB.
With its sober and stylish design, the ZenPad 3S 10 is very pleasant to look at and take in hand. We particularly appreciate the metal back, the small thickness (7 mm) of the case and its neat finish.
Note also the presence of a fingerprint reader in the home button. Registering a finger (up to five possible) takes a little time, but then unlocking the device is almost immediate.
For the 9.7 inch screen in 4/3 format, Asus uses IPS technology to offer wide viewing angles, but above all on the same high definition as that of the iPad Pro: 2048 x 1536 pixels, or 264 dots per inch. However, the maximum brightness (397 cd / m²) and the contrast ratio are satisfactory (1018: 1), but nothing more.
With its Qualcomm MSM8956 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory (including around 53 GB available for the user), the Asus tablet plays the power card. The navigation is very fluid in the interface of Android 7.0, with a practical ZenUI overlay and which does not weigh down the system too much. The 3D performance is excellent with a frame rate of 45.6 images per second measured with the Epic Citadel application. And this result does not decrease after half an hour of intensive use. If the internal memory is not sufficient, the device accepts microSD cards up to 128 GB. We also successfully connected a USB OTG Type-C key, the Lexar M20c.
If power is required, the Asus tablet does not break endurance records but delivers honest times, with a little more than eight hours measured in video playback and a little more than seven hours in our autonomy test versatile with active Wi-Fi (surfing the web, viewing photos and playing videos).
The only real disappointment with the ZenPad 3S 10 is its 8 megapixel photo sensor. Outdoors, photos lack precision and become very noisy indoors when there is not enough light. Indoor use will therefore be strongly limited, knowing that the tablet does not have a flash. We also note a lack of precision for Full HD videos (1920 x 1080 pixels) with, in addition, an unpleasant shaking effect. It is certainly possible to activate a stabilization function but, in this case, the shooting is done in 1280 x 720 pixels. Finally, Asus announces excellent sound quality for its tablet but, in our opinion, the two speakers deliver correct sound without being exceptional.
- You can buy the ASUS ZenPad 3S 10 LTE Z500KL WiFi Tablet at Tomtop for $199.99.
